


Always By Your Side

by ElizaStyx



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Car Accidents, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Cute, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Sickness, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 12:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizaStyx/pseuds/ElizaStyx
Summary: Gerard had never been afraid to stay by Frank's side. Even when the doctors were saying he was extremely contagious, Gerard always laughed they were lying just to keep him away since they couldn't handle their levels of awesome cumulate when they were together. Which he obviously knew wasn't true but it somehow made Frank laugh every time.God, how he wished Frank was actually contagious this time around.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Oh hello there stranger or old friend, long time no see.  
> So... it's been half a year... Ha.  
> A lot of shit was going down in my life but the bottom line is, I wasn't able to write anything. Not because I didn't want to, I really wish I could have escaped certain events burrowing myself in these stories but sometimes we can't get exactly what we want.  
> Today I sincerely hope that period of my life is over for good and in an attempt to kill my writer's block I wrote two stories. One of them is... not what I wanted it to be originally so I'm not sure I will publish it but this one... well...  
> The creepy thing is, I got an idea for this back in August when I was publishing The Greatest Scam, way before certain events occured. In case you haven't read the tags - it involves a car crash. At this point you should probably know what I'm getting at. I almost didn't write it just because in some ways the subject may still feel a bit touchy but the thing is, this story wanted to get out and I've been thinking about it far too intensely to just ignore it. I only wanted you to know that the idea for this came first and I've drawn no inspiration from the actual events. It's not too graphic but if accidents and hospitals are a sensitive subject to you, please, consider yourself warned.

Gerard Way was always kind of an unusal person. Many would go as far as to call him insane, if he told them that usually he associated the grim, ugly hospital corridors with happy childhood memories; they just weren't places of joy by definition. If you took your time though and actually listened to his story, you'd very well understand his reasons to think otherwise.

However, this time around running down the familiar halls on Friday evening wasn't in any way fun. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel it in his throat and at the base of his tongue, pulsing and choking him as he leaped over some forgotten handbag.

None of this was supposed to happen.

It just wasn't possible that twenty years of happiness could conclude in this specific moment in such a horrid way. Actually, the exact anniversary was tomorrow and the irony of the situation wasn't lost on him.

Almost exactly twenty years ago Gerard ended up in this hospital with a bad case of bronchitis. Coughing his lungs out and shaking with fever, he was tucked into a narrow bed with thin covers and plugged to at least three different devices and rubber tubes. As he grimly wrapped himself in the worn out blanket, only his messy head sticking out, he was met with a curious gaze of a boy lying on the bed next to his. It was probably just his overheated brain proceeding the world with distortion but the boy seemed to be radiating with unusually livid glow, a happiest aura Gerard could possibly imagine encountering. He would never expect anyone to remain this purely joyful while stuck in a hospital.

Soon enough he learned that it wasn't like the boy had much of a choice but it was still quite admirable, maybe even more so.

"Hi." said the boy. "I'm Frank."

And that's how it all begun.

In the oncoming hours Gerard discovered that none of the other kids on the ward were much of a company, they were too young, too sick or too scared of the two of them so naturally they just stuck together and developed a companionship that quickly turned into a friendship.

Frank didn't make much of a secret out of the fact that it was his fourth time in the hospital in the last year due to "weak immunity systems" as he put it (and Gerard pretended he knew exactly what that meant) but he didn't mind it too much since the nurses seemed to like him and got him the best books from the library whenver he asked.

There weren't many shenanigans they could get up to in a hospital, especially not when tied to all these plastic bottles with slowly dripping cold liquids but they still managed to have the most fun kids trapped in one room can have. Gerard would never admit that half of the time he was actually scared shitless since needles were one of the few things he genuinely feared but the company helped him stay distracted. He also quietly admired Frank for taking what seemed to be thrice as many shots as him without any complaint. His fearfulness made Gerard feel a little braver himself.

It also felt bizzare to have a friend by his side at all times. He wasn't used to it as he was the kind of a shy, chubby, unpopular nerd who prefered to stay in the shadows and avoided bringing any attention to himself just to survive the school year unnoticed. And yet Frank, who seemed like a very cool guy with his rich collection of superhero comics he willingly lent and an actual walkman that had headphones cable just long enough to share, seemed to like hanging out with him. He was quite shocked to overhear Frank's mom admit to his mother that Frank didn't have many friends back home and even though he was extremely curious, he never asked him why.

After they both got released from the hospital, they insisted on their moms setting a playdate for them as they didn't live too far from each other, unwilling to part ways until they promised they would meet again. From then on they would spend every Saturday together at one or the other's house.

Four months later Frank ended up in the hospital again and there was no force in heaven or in hell that would stop Gerard from visiting him every day after school. The nurses didn't want to let him in at first but he wouldn't leave until Frank's mom came in and signed the needed papers with a slightly confused smile.

If Gerard could, he'd sleep on the floor by Frank's bed just to keep him company during these weeks. The hospital staff wasn't too glad to see him crawl underneath the covers next to Frank in his outdoors clothing and boots so he would steal some stools or chairs from the corridors or other rooms and just sit by until the evening came and his mom would appear to literally drag him home.

And so he years have passed, every couple of months Frank falling sick again, as they grew older less and less frequently, and Gerard being there for him no matter what. This time he'd been healthy going strong for eight months until this...

Gerard was still trying to make sense of the events but his head wouldn't stop spinning and buzzing as the various events of the week kept replying in tiny, torn flashback scenes.

They went to the cinema yesterday for the horror movie night, which was obviously Frank's pick but Gerard wasn't complaining. He wouldn't complain even if Frank took him to something as awful as _50 Shades of Grey_ , which probably said a lot about him. He wouldn't complain since the shittier the movie, the more of his undivided attention could be focused on Frank, the way the light of the screen illuminated his profile and silvered his soft features. Gerard could spend hours cataloguing the tiniest details to draw later in endless attempts to catch, frame and somehow immortalize all the tiny, perfect things up to the shortest eyelash of his left eye.

If you couldn't tell by now, Gerard was completely, undoubtfully, undeniably in love with Frank.

It happened somewhere between them cutting out heart-shaped potato stamps for Frank's school assignement and the day the nurse told him he would shit his bowels and possibly also the brain out, if he just as much as touched Frank, right before he chose to crawl into Frank's narrow hospital bed and hug him tightly just to make him blush.

Not that the exact timing mattered too much since he was pretty sure that Frank somehow, unbelievably luckily for him, loved him back. Or well, he most probably did, if only Gerard read the signs right and the way Frank's ear tips reddened when Gerard held his hand as they walked out of the cinema into the night was any indication.

On that fateful Friday he woke up feeling immortal. He woke up ready to actually ask Frank out for a proper date, plan something special for the anniversary of their first meeting. He woke up strongly believing he could be brave enough to steal a tiny kiss without fearing this would fuck their friendship up.  
He called Frank after the dinner and he groaned fondly as he heard the familiar cracking Frank's car speaker system always produced.  
('I hear you perfectly well, Gee.'  
'Well, I hear your Honda fart louder than you talk and that's all I have to say on that topic.')

He lowkey really hated these noises because they interfered with him hearing Frank's voice but he would gladly take them all at their most intense over what he heard next.

The horrible sound of the car colliding into something forcefully would surely haunt him in his dreams for the years to come. The terrifying crunch of metal folding rung in his ears as he screamed for Frank to answer but the call ended as the car's audio system shut down on the impact. Gerard couldn't recall much of what happened next. He collapsed onto the floor and it was pretty much the last thing he knew, his legs just gave out.

Quite possibly ages had passed before he came around and felt strong enough to get up and run to the hospital the fastest his body could carry him. He almost jumped right in front of an ambulance as he was crossing the parking lot at high speed. The last bit of reason he got told him he really shouldn't run after said ambulance into the garage they would kick him out of but rather get inside as originally planned and see where he could go from there.

He stepped in just in time for a team of paramedics to run past him in rush. He couldn't see much but he knew, he just knew that this must have been Frank there, fighting for his life. Once again the ground slid from underneath his feet and as he hunched there on the floor, a sob escaping his mouth, he noticed he run out of his house with one slipper on. No wonder his feet hurt almost as much as his constricted chest when he gasped for air. He paid no attention to someone appearing nearby to help him up onto the chair as he stared at his stupid slipper as if it's almost surreal presence could attest to the spuriousness of these events. The mysterious person was asking him some questions but he couldn't really hear them over the sound of blood pounding in his ears and the echoes of all the horrific crash sounds repeating themselves and multiplying in his head.

"Frank..." he whispered and grimaced as he felt the awfull dryness in his mouth and throat. "Was that Frank Iero they brought in?" he looked at the person in front of him who turned out to be a frightened nurse; it occured to him that he must have looked completely insane but he didn't really care what she thought about him.  
"I can check that for you." she said hesitantly with some sort of careful understanding appearing in her eyes. "Are you okay?"  
"Just tell me if that's him, please." Gerard ignored the question. Besides it must have been quite obvious that he really was not.

The nurse left him to himself and he tried to collect his scattered thoughts. His hands were shaking badly, his whole body trembling in shock and dread. He thought about calling Frank's mom but he wasn't sure he would be able to unlock his phone, if he even could hold it without dropping it to the floor. He swallowed hard as he saw the nurse rushing back.

"Frank Anthony Iero, is that him you were looking for? Are you his family?" she asked with worry.  
"A friend." Gerard admitted truthfully, which was a mistake as he realised a couple of seconds later but the damage had already been done.  
"I cannot really tell you much then." she made a sad face. "He's in surgery now." she took a step back.  
"Please... Just... Will he be fine?" he begged.  
"They don't know that just yet, I'm sorry." she shook her head. "Does he have any family? I should call them."  
"I'll do it." Gerard said, even though he wanted nothing more but to scream until his throat gave out.

***

Linda Iero bursted through the hospital door like a hurricane and Gerard barely managed to catch her before she entered the ward and got herself into trouble. She clung onto him, seeking for a shelter in his arms as if he could protect her from the reality and save her from facing the situation at hand.

She sobbed out a thousand questions into his chest but they wouldn't tell him anything before her arrival so he was as much in the dark as her, able only to hold her and create some sense of safety that way. Over the years she grew to treat him like her second son and while Gerard had never told her he was planning to hopefully actually make her his mother-in-law in the nearest future, he suspected she knew about that even before he did.

And now he had to provide her with comfort he didn't have enough of for himself.

She took a solid minute before she collected herself enough to turn to the nurses for any news. The one that helped Gerard before couldn't really say much but she promised to check what was going on behind the closed door of the operating room. The three minutes she was gone for were among the longest they had to ever endure in their lives. Gerard wanted to punch a wall or rip his nails out one by one, stuck there waiting in the ingorance. He needed to know that Frank was going to be okay but he also didn't want to know if anything went wrong.

At the sight of the woman rushing back he had to strain all of his willpower not to bolt and avoid the confrontation with the truth whatever it would turn out to be.

"The surgery went well." the nurse smiled softly. "He should be moved to the accessible ward in the next half an hour. Then we will have to wait to see if he wakes up."  
" **When** he wakes up, you wanted to say..." Linda said silently.  
"Madam, after sustaining such injuries, it's hard to tell anything for sure." she looked sincerely compassionate. "But we should always hope for the best."  
Gerard squeezed Linda's hand.

***

As much as Gerard was generally used to seeing Frank underneath the pale sheets and connected to various terrifying tubes, he felt his throat tighten at the sight of the familiar face all swollen with cuts and bruises, arm in a cast, the whole form terrifyingly unmoving.

The doctor said they had to remove Frank's spleen to save his life. There were risks, a long list of them. Frank's heart never stopped beating even for a second but his brain still could turn out to be damaged solely from the impact of the crush. Only time could tell now if there were any serious injuries. His arm and ribs were broken, his spine miraculously intact. He had had a lot of luck, the doctor said. A van crashed into his Honda at full speed, its driver high as a kite and now also brain-dead in the room right next door. His heart could save someone else's life now but was it really enough of a redemption after he almost took Frank with himself? Gerard wanted to tear someone to shreds, more violently with every hour Frank wasn't waking up.

At 2am he told Linda to go home. Nurses tried to remove them both from the building but he wouldn't let them push him out of the room. Some of them remembered him, even though he usually visited a different ward, so they didn't have the heart to insist harder and in the end he stayed. As always by Frank's side. Except this time nobody was warning him he'd catch something if he just as much as breathed in Frank's direction. And yet he barely dared to stand near him or brush his fingers agains his skin, afraid to bring him pain or somehow worsen his condition.

At 3am he stole a chair from the hall and gladly exchanged his unstable stool for it to sit by Frank's head more comfortably. He hesitantly reached out for his hand, the one that was attached to less devices, and traced the letters tattoed onto Frank's fingers.

W E E N

Boy, would he always tease Frank about that, it was just too funny. But also genuinely cute and somehow so inherently Frank. Gerard just sincerely hoped Frank would never get the idea to tattoo a matching F A R T on the inside. Although he had to admit it would also be a very him thing to do.

He intertwined their fingers delicately, letting Frank's palm rest in his.  
"Please, Frankie" he whispered. "Wake up, I was just about to take you out on the most amazing date of your life, you cannot miss out on that."  
The only answer was a steady beeping of the machine that monitored Frank's stats. For now it had to be good enough.

In the otherwise silent room Gerard could still hear the crushing noises ramble in his skull whenever he closed his eyes so to fight it he started humming familiar melodies of his and Frank's favourite songs until he slowly drifted into blissful unconsciousness, exhausted and worn out from all the stress and emotions this day had brought.

As it turned out, he wasn't in for much of a rest though. Something woke him up in the complete darkness of the early hours right before the dawn. He couldn't quite place the stimulus until he felt it again. A soft squeeze.

And then a familiar voice, only a bit raspier than usual.

"Gerard..." Frank whispered with obvious strain.  
"I'm here. Oh God, Frankie, you're coming around." Gerard was immediately wide awake. "Water?"  
"Please..." Frank thankfully swallowed a couple of sips before focusing his sight back on Gerard.

"I had an accident..." he more of mused than asked. "Fuck, this no hospital streak was going so well..." he shook his head slightly and instantly grimaced in pain. "On a scale from hungover me to Tobey Maguire crying in Spider-Man how bad do I look?"

Gerard couldn't really answer that as the realisation was slowly dawning on him. Frank was alive, conscious, breathing, talking...

"To be honest, still very lovely." he finally choked out, unwanted tears gathering in his eyes. "Alive is a good look on you."  
Frank opened his mouth but didn't say anything.  
"We were so scared." Gerard was fighting hard not to cry in relief. "I was so scared. That you'd die and leave me before I got to tell you how much you mean to me really. How much I love you, you goof. How happy you make me. How important you are despite how little you think of yourself." he couldn't see much in the dark but he was pretty sure Frank blushed underneath all those bruises.

"I know you love me." he eventually said after a minute of stunned silence. "You make me feel like my life is worth something."  
Gerard shook his head.  
"You don't know just how much I truly do." he leaned in, squeezing Frank's hand lightly. "I love you more than anything or anyone on this earth and I couldn't imagine my life without you. I almost dropped dead on spot when this happened. I... When I called you earlier today, I wanted to ask if you could maybe give me a chance to prove how much this means and..." he swallowed, suddenly shy. "go out with me."  
Frank held his gaze, his eyes growing wider.  
"Of course I would have said yes but I'm afraid I'm not really in the dating shape now." he shrugged lightly. "Sorry, I think you'd have to carry me into a restaurant in your arms."  
"If only I was sure it wouldn't hurt you, I would." Gerard smiled widely, a huge weight falling off his shoulders. "And I would ask if I could kiss you now, if it wouldn't reopen your cuts."  
"Oh, my lips are fucked, aren't they?" Frank's frown was downright adorable.  
"I'm afraid so." Gerard felt the joy fill his chest up to the brim with bubbly warmth.  
"Then I guess you have to kiss my nose now." Frank made a very tired face. "Just be very careful, it feels like it's barely attached to the rest of my... facial area."

It just must have been the gentlest kiss Gerard had ever given, possibly also the most awkward one but he didn't mind it at all. He felt positively giddy leaning back to look into Frank's eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Frank whispered, squeezing his hand. "I mean, you quite possibly know that already but... I love you every bit just as much."

To be frank, Gerard had had a strong suspicion. 


End file.
